Album Review

The first recording by trombonist Wilbur DeParis' "New New Orleans Jazz Band" (although it was actually released after their 1955 session) is full of fresh and lively Dixieland. DeParis and his all-stars (cornetist Sidney DeParis, clarinetist Omer Simeon, pianist Don Kirkpatrick, banjoist Eddie Gibbs, bassist Harold Jackson and drummer Freddie Moore) play a wide variety of material which includes the leader's colorful "Martinique," "Under the Double Eagle," Rachmaninoff's "Prelude in C Sharp Minor," a couple of Jelly Roll Morton tunes and "When the Saints Go Marching In"; the second part of the latter is taken at a blistering tempo. The DeParis band was one of the most consistently inventive Dixieland-oriented groups of the 1950s, so it is very unfortunate that its valuable Atlantic LPs are all long out-of-print.

Biography

Born: 11 January 1900 in Crawfordsville, IN

Genre: Jazz

Years Active: '20s, '30s, '40s, '50s, '60s

Wilbur DeParis, an adequate soloist, was an excellent ensemble player and an important bandleader who helped keep New Orleans jazz alive in the 1950s. He started out on alto horn and in 1922 played C-melody sax while working with A.J. Piron before switching permanently to trombone. In 1925, DeParis led a band in Philadelphia and then had stints in the orchestras of Leroy Smith (1928), Dave Nelson, Noble Sissle, Edgar Hayes, Teddy Hill (1936-1937), the Mills Blue Rhythm Band, and Louis Armstrong (1937-1940)....